


Happiness Is A Warm Gun

by protectginozasquad



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, during and post S2, it was supposed to be five times but turned into four and a half, this was supposed to be fluffy and ended up way too angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4376717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectginozasquad/pseuds/protectginozasquad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four and a half times inspector Tsunemori makes enforcer Ginoza blush. Buried feelings coming to the surface. </p>
<p>"Are you sure you can handle someone this pathetic?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happiness Is A Warm Gun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [somanyopentabs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/somanyopentabs/gifts).



> This is a fic for somanyopentabs, aka ginozascloudyhue on tumblr. They gave me this prompt in early June, so suffice it to say I'm the worst. But it got done!! And it was supposed to be fluffy and ended up being mostly angsty. It was also supposed to be five times Tsunemori Made Ginoza Blush but it ended up being more like four and a half times. I'm is-your-heart-in-the-cards on tumblr if you do that kind of thing.

Four Times Tsunemori Makes Ginoza Blush 

“By the way, can I ask you a trivial question?” Tsunemori asked. 

“What is it?” 

“Were you wearing glasses just for show?” 

Ginoza smiled sheepishly. Of course she would notice something like that. They were his trademark, after all. For years he had taken his frustration out on those stupid glasses, cleaning them furiously whenever he felt his Crime Coefficient rising. 

“I don’t like how my face looks, especially my eyes. But I don’t care about that anymore.” 

He didn’t tell her what Masaoka had said to him. It was still fresh in his memory, and almost too painful to even think about. He was still slowly warming up to the reality that he had become like his father. And that it may not be the awful picture he had built inside his mind all these years. 

Tsunemori glanced over to the newly-minted enforcer. She caught his eye and smiled. 

“I’m glad. I think you look better this way.” 

Ginoza cursed at himself inwardly, hating the way his heart sped up ever so slightly at her comment, and turned his face to the window as a blush crept up to his cheeks. 

She said it like it was the most casual thing in the world. As if he wasn’t now a latent criminal, the trash of society. But then, she had never treated enforcers that way. 

It had been a strange and mostly awful transition for the former inspector. The isolation facility was too white, sterile, bright. Throughout his time there he began to feel almost grateful that inspectors whose Crime Coefficients deviated from the regulation value were still considered apt for the MWPSB. He had never felt sorry for latent criminals before. 

But during his two months in the facility, he came to understand very well how hopeless the situation of the average latent criminal was. It was, indeed, a prison. No matter how much the doctors talked about hue improvement and integration back into society, Ginoza knew it was a big joke. 

Tsunemori’s passing comment shouldn’t have surprised him. 

When did she become so familiar with me? He asked himself. As if immediately prepared to answer that question, his mind played back a scene from a month prior. 

++

It was his time in the isolation facility that had given both of them a time to get closer. Tsunemori visited twice a week, sometimes more. He told her every time that she shouldn’t spend so much time in a place with so many damaged people, people like himself. 

Her answer was always the same: “Who else can understand how I am feeling?” 

As much as he didn’t want to feel it, Ginoza felt honored, to be valued, needed almost, by the inspector. 

During the visits, sometimes they talked about nothing besides the weather. It wasn’t as though Ginoza would know if it was sunny or rainy outside. The facility lacked windows. He felt like an experiment. 

Sometimes they talked about his arm. She would ask how it felt. He would reply that it doesn’t feel much of anything, but he could tell that it was healing, working. He would then usually make a joke about his father, which would send them into the abyss of pain that they waded through together. 

Once, only once, had Ginoza completely lost control in front of her. Tsunemori had come to the facility bearing lunch, dismissing the doctor’s insistence that Ginoza should only eat isolation food. She wouldn’t hear it. 

From his cell he could hear her voice firmly saying, “He hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks, do you want my credentials or something?” and the doctor stammering out an apology. 

“Hi, Ginoza-san,” she said as the doctor, hanging his head, unlocked the door to his cell. “I brought my favorite food for lunch, because I’m a little selfish.” 

Ginoza had been feeling particularly fragile that morning, and looked at her with a tired smile. “You’re the inspector. You should make the choices.” 

She smiled, hers much brighter than his. “Here, have some.” She set a bowl of noodles in front of him, and pulled out two glasses of cold water from a cooler. 

It was the first time he tried to take a drink using his new arm. He reached for the water glass, and as he brought it closer to him, it shattered in his hand. He wasn’t used to it yet, to this unfeeling metal contraption that he needed to accept as a part of him. 

Unbidden and unstoppable, tears sprang to his eyes.

“Ginoza-san?” Tsunemori’s voice was soft, which only made the tears flow faster. How could she be so strong? How could she spend time with someone as broken as him?

“It would have been better...” 

“Gino?” It was the first time she had used Kougami’s nickname for him. 

“It would have been better if I had died.” The words came out so quietly she almost didn’t hear him. 

Ginoza didn’t remember much after that, only a hue alert going off, the cell turned from white to red, a doctor dragging the inspector out of the room despite her protestations, everything was fuzzy, everything started to fade, he vaguely hoped it would fade forever. 

When he came to, Tsunemori stood over him, worry outlining her usually soft features. 

“Tsunemori -” he began. 

“No. Don’t say anything. Just rest for now.” 

That was when she became so familiar with him. 

++

The next time it happened, Karanomori - devastatingly - was present. 

The analyst, inspector Tsunemori, and enforcer Ginoza were meeting in the tech room over their latest case. The inspector was standing in front of Karanomori’s computers, reading some hue curve data in an elevated area stress level warning from the previous day. Ginoza sat on the couch with his arms crossed. 

While Karanomori was fully aware of what had happened, she asked Tsunemori to recount the details. 

++

What started as a routine neighborhood survey had turned into an all-out police chase, when Ginoza and Tsunemori came unexpectedly across the very culprits they had been searching for. 

Three men, each responsible for a different robbery, were considered armed and dangerous, but had been effective at eluding both street scanners and drones for the past week. Although it was lucky for solving the case that Tsunemori and Ginoza had found them, they were unprepared for a fight, and didn’t have their dominators immediately armed. 

Tsunemori hadn’t let that stop her. She rushed after the men as they ran, declaring that under her authority as a PSB inspector, they should surrender immediately or face execution by the dominators. 

Ginoza had been left to wait for the police cart to bring out the dominators. As soon as he had one in his hands, he ran after her with all his might. 

She was so reckless. He was reminded, painfully, of Kougami. 

_What is it with the people I love?_ He thought to himself angrily. If he had been less preoccupied, he may have stopped to mull over the passing use of the word ‘love’ in his thought process. 

He was, however, too busy chasing after Tsunemori to dwell on it. 

Ginoza made it in time. He disarmed all three criminals, none of whom activated Lethal Eliminator on the dominator. Drones came to their assistance, and they made it back to the office within the hour.

++

“Oooh, Akane-chan! You know you shouldn’t run yourself into dangerous situations like that!” 

“That’s what I have Gino for, though!” Tsunemori laughed.

Tsunemori had adopted the nickname in the last few months. She never used it in front of Shimotsuki. Not that she cared much what the junior inspector thought of her, but Tsunemori knew that it would make her even harder on the enforcers. As soon as Tsunemori built them up, Shimotsuki took it upon herself to tear them right back down. 

But this was the first time she had used it in front of the snooping, meddling analyst.

Karanomori gave Ginoza a sidelong glance as Tsunemori bent over a file. She wiggled an eyebrow at him and his reddening cheeks only encouraged her further. She stood up from the computer, walked to the couch, sat close to the flustered enforcer, and threw her arm around his shoulders.

“So, Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass has turned to Knight-In-Shining-Armor for the inspector, eh?” 

Ginoza tried to say something, but all he could do was make frustrated noises.

“What was that?” Karanomori drawled. “I couldn’t hear you, _Gino_.” She poked him in the side dramatically. His blush deepened. 

“Knock it off, Shion,” he spat venomously. Dropping his voice, he added, “Mind your own damn business.” 

With a wink, she stood up and said, “You’re no fun.” 

++

The third time Tsunemori made enforcer Ginoza blush happened when she offered to help Ginoza clean out his father’s things. He had been working as an enforcer over a year now, but hadn’t had the heart so far to go through Masaoka’s things. 

He approached Tsunemori early during a day shift. 

“Tsunemori, can I ask a favor?”

“Of course, Ginoza-san,” Tsunemori looked at him with curiosity. Shimotsuki was in the office that day, so the honorifics remained as usual. “Is something the matter?” 

Ginoza scratched the back of his neck with his regular arm. He spoke quietly.

“It’s just - I think it’s time for me to clean out enforcer Masaoka’s things.” 

Tsunemori’s eyebrows raised, and her eyes grew wide. 

Ginoza was assured that Shimotsuki had never cared enough about enforcers to read the files: she wouldn’t know what he meant. But Tsunemori, of course, knew exactly what he meant. 

He had been working up the courage for months. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he hoped that he would be able to do it himself. But the courage to do it on his own never came. He needed the small, strong inspector to accompany him. To be there, if he lost control again.

He was accepting, slowly but surely, that he needed Tsunemori’s level head and kind heart to keep him afloat when the past came to haunt him. 

He tried to hope that she didn’t feel the same. 

Why should she need him? An inspector shouldn’t rely on an enforcer for anything other than physical well-being and mental care protection in the field. That’s all that enforcers were good for. 

He couldn’t, though. He had to hope that she felt an inkling, no matter how small, of need for him. In the wake of the change over division one, while he was at the isolation facility, it had seemed like it, but he wasn’t sure if those needs had been left behind. 

“Of course, Ginoza-san. We end our shifts at the same time tonight, don’t we? Let’s go down after that.” 

“Whatever you think is best, inspector.” 

Later in the evening, they sat together in a storage unit, opening cardboard boxes, all labeled with his father’s last name. 

To Ginoza’s surprise, it had not been hard to look through the boxes. He even found himself enjoying it. The guilt over his treatment of his father had washed over him so many times, he had become used to it. 

In a way, it was nice. He felt connected to the objects in the boxes. He brushed his hands over the painting supplies, long dried out and useless. He knew he couldn’t keep them. 

But as he moved the painting supplies towards the box set apart for trash, he decided to look through the brushes. He picked one that had obviously been little-used. The hair of the brush was silky and soft. He decided he would keep it, for himself. 

A high-pitched squeal broke abruptly through his thoughts. It came from the inspector. It was neither of laughter nor fear, but Ginoza shot up and rushed to Tsunemori’s side regardless. 

“Tsunemori? What is it?”

“You are so CUTE,” her voice was loud and emphatic. 

Before he could evaluate the situation, an bright red color flooded his cheeks. 

Her squealing continued, and she held out a picture frame.   “I mean - just look at you!” 

It was an old framed picture, photo-fit and unmoving. The picture showed him as a small child, pinching his father’s cheek as Masaoka held him up. They were both grinning, Ginoza in childhood delight, Masaoka in fatherly pride. 

“I didn’t even know that he had this,” Ginoza took it in both hands and ran his fingers over it. 

Tsunemori’s laughter faded into a smile, slightly tinted with concern. 

He looked up and met her eyes. He smiled at her. 

“Don’t be worried,” he allowed his eyes to soften. “I’m alright. It feels good, you know, to look at a time where we were both happy.” 

Tsunemori’s smile brightened back up, concern fading but not altogether gone. 

“You were very cute, Gino. Just look how happy you are!” 

“I miss him,” Ginoza answered. 

Tsunemori wrapped her small hand around his on the picture frame. 

“I do too. When we’re done here, let’s take that back to your flat. It will look nice on the side table with your plants, don’t you think?” 

Tsunemori knew his life all the way through, from his furniture placement to his grieving process. Ginoza couldn’t help but be thrilled with how well she knew him. 

“I think you’re right, inspector.” 

“Stop calling me that when we’re alone!” 

++

The fourth time Ginoza’s blush appeared was during an rare team night out. 

Tsunemori and Shimotsuki had just finished their fifth case in two months, breaking the record that the former division one team held. It was a Friday night, and divisions two and three were to field any and all emergencies that might come through on the weekend. 

They were at a local restaurant, quiet enough for the team to sit and talk, but busy enough that they didn’t seem out of place. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even Shimotsuki was smiling. She was enamored by Yayoi, which was good enough for Ginoza. The less Shimotsuki had to say the better. 

Hinakawa Sho and Teppei Sugo were present, as well, enjoying the time outside as enforcers. They were talking with Yayoi about their former jobs as Shimotsuki stared at her in a daze. They were all smiling, using uncharacteristically soft gestures and faces. Ginoza felt oddly at home. 

Tsunemori had ordered a round of drinks for everyone, although Hinakawa had turned the offer down. Everyone had a cocktail of their choice in hand. Apparently the MWPSB was chalking this night up as a business expense. 

Ginoza was starting to feel warm, the alcohol settling in to his stomach comfortably. In honor of his father, he had chosen a nice double whiskey on the rocks. 

“Gino,” Tsunemori apparently felt like breaking her nickname rule. Ginoza took note that Shimotsuki didn’t even glance up. 

Ginoza realized, fleetingly, that his heart was racing much more than their usual conversations. He pushed the thought away, blaming the alcohol. 

“Are you... happy?” 

The question caught Ginoza off-guard. He didn’t stop to reflect on himself much these days. There were too many unspoken, hidden thoughts in the back of his head. His father, his demotion, his growing feelings for the inspector... thinking about his feelings always led down those dark, unexplored trails. 

“I, um,” he paused. Tsunemori looked at him expectantly. 

Ginoza sighed. 

“I feel less pressure now. With the chief off my back and fewer responsibilities, I feel somehow freer. But,” he held up his wristband. “There’s this, too.”

Tsunemori smiled sadly. _She does that a lot, lately,_ Ginoza thought to himself. He certainly hoped that it wasn’t on his account. 

He felt a hand on his thigh. Shocked, Ginoza looked sharply at the inspector and couldn’t help the change of color across his face. 

“Tsunemori!” he whispered, but somehow very severely. “What are you doing?!” 

No matter what his feelings were, he was sure that Shimotsuki would notice if Tsunemori was acting inappropriately. It was a surefire way to get her demoted and himself sent straight back to the isolation facility. 

She looked at him seriously. She dropped her voice low as well. “Gino, no one is paying attention to us. Just listen to me. I want you to be happy, and I want you to always tell me how you feel.” 

Ginoza’s face felt even warmer. He took the whiskey glass in his hand and downed it in one gulp. 

_Was it possible? That she knew? No way._

__He had tried so hard to keep his feelings for her hidden. It wasn’t professional, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t good for her. He wanted to protect her, and keeping himself away from her was the best way to protect her._ _

__“Now listen, Ginoza Nobuchika,” Tsunemori said sternly. “I am going to get you another whiskey, and we are going to take a stroll, alright?”_ _

__Waves of nervousness shot through Ginoza’s chest._ _

__“R-right, inspector. Whatever you say.”_ _

__Tsunemori rolled her eyes, called over the waiter, ordered a second glass of champagne for herself and another double whiskey for Ginoza._ _

__After both drinks arrived, Tsunemori cleared her throat in an attempt to get her junior inspector’s attention. After one too many failed endeavors, Yayoi was the one to finally point Shimotsuki towards the inspector._ _

__“What is it, senpai?” Shimotsuki was sour, as ever._ _

__“I feel like getting some fresh air, but it’s dark outside, so I’m taking enforcer Ginoza with me.”_ _

__Shimotsuki waved her hand dismissively. “Alright, alright.”_ _

__“Inspector Shimotsuki,” Tsunemori spoke firmly. “I trust you will see the other enforcers back to their quarters if I have not returned by the time our check arrives, right?”_ _

__Ginoza flinched. It wasn’t often that Tsunemori took that tone with Shimotsuki._ _

__The junior inspector apparently noticed it, as well. Sheepishly, she nodded her head and assured her senior that the enforcers would be safely deposited at their places after the night was over._ _

__Tsunemori thanked the younger inspector sincerely for her help._ _

__“Let’s go, Ginoza-san,” she adopted the formality as long as Shimotsuki was paying attention._ _

__++_ _

__The restaurant had an enclosed patio that included a small section of sidewalk, where one could walk and see a nice view of the city. Ginoza and Tsunemori walked, sipping their drinks and gazing at the skyline._ _

__They stopped at a low fence and leaned up against it, inches separating their arms. The space between them pained Ginoza. He could feel warmth radiating from her. How he longed to pull that warmth in to himself, to keep her close to him, for as long as she would let him, as long as the cruel world gave them time._ _

__“Say, Gino,”_ _

__Ginoza didn’t answer, and instead waited for her to finish her thought. The whiskey was making its way even further into his brain, and he wasn’t sure he trusted himself to keep his composure as calm as usual._ _

__“I don’t think I ever saw you smile until after you were released from the isolation facility.”_ _

__Ginoza laughed in spite of himself. It was almost a giggle. For some reason, her statement was both amusing and comforting._ _

__“I laughed at Kougami a few times in our old division one, I think,” he countered._ _

__Tsunemori nodded in assent._ _

__“But I never saw you smile, just a plain smile, until you came back to work as an enforcer.”_ _

__Thoughts flashed across Ginoza’s mind, and suddenly words started to spill out of his mouth. He didn’t know where they came from, only that he wasn’t able to stop them._ _

__“Before I was an enforcer, I saw everyone leaving me behind. Now, there’s no one to leave. No one besides you, I mean, but I know that you aren’t going to leave me,” he drew a sharp intake of breath, as if he was about to stop, but it was too late. He was committed._ _

__“I spent most of my emotional energy as an inspector protecting myself against becoming like dad or Kougami. I worried about you too, you know.”_ _

__He turned from the fence towards her. Her expression was calm, unreadable._ _

__“You are, well, special,” god, it sounded so lame._ _

__“I knew then that I couldn’t lose you, too. It was selfish, really,” his voice shook. Tears sprang to the corners of his eyes. He didn’t know he would be this emotional._ _

__Tsunemori set her glass on the thick fence well, and turned her whole body towards him. She put both hands on his arms and looked him in the eye. It would have been breathtaking, if Ginoza wasn’t so busy blinking tears away from his eyes._ _

__Here he was, baring his soul to her, and he couldn’t even have the decency to control his emotions. It was pathetic._ _

__“I don’t think you’re selfish, Gino,” she spoke so softly. Her voice was silky and warm, like a blanket Ginoza felt he could wrap himself up in, stay safe in forever._ _

__“Tsunemori, I, um, I,” he stammered, searching for any words other than the ones he wanted to say. “I can’t lose you.” Tears spilled from his eyes._ _

__“I l-l-love you, Tsunemori Akane,” he said finally. His arms hung limply by his sides. He dropped his eyes to stare at his shoes._ _

__After a moment, Tsunemori spoke again._ _

__“Gino, look at me, please.”_ _

__He lifted his eyes, embarrassed, red-cheeked, feeling exposed by the weight of all the feelings he had spent so much time hiding from._ _

__“I promise, I _promise _,” the small woman said strongly but gently. “I won’t ever leave you.”___ _

____Overcome by his emotions, Ginoza all but jumped forward and threw his arms around her. He held her to his chest, squeezing her as tightly as he could without hurting her. His tears fell more freely, his breathing was uneven, he was ashamed, he was thrilled, he was too many things at the same time._ _ _ _

____In that moment, he knew that she was his, she was his, _she was his.__ _ _ _

____“Sh, shh, Gino,” she whispered into his ear. “It’s okay. I love you, too. Don’t cry. I love you.”_ _ _ _

____After a long while, when the shaking and the tears stopped, he released her. He wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve, and laughed bitterly._ _ _ _

____“Are you sure you can handle someone this pathetic?” He held out his arms dramatically._ _ _ _

____“Oh, Gino, my love,” his heart fluttered as the names came from her mouth. “I need you, every day. You make me strong,” a firmness crept into her voice. “Don’t ever say that about yourself again.”_ _ _ _

____Ginoza nodded, and took one of her hands in both of his. Unsure of what he was doing, he slowly and carefully brought it to his lips._ _ _ _

____This wasn’t the way it should be, but it was everything he wanted it to be._ _ _ _

____“Let’s go back to the tower,” Tsunemori said. “We can sit, and talk, forever and ever.”_ _ _ _

____It was the sweetest, most beautiful thing Ginoza had ever heard._ _ _ _

____“Nothing could give me more happiness, inspector.”_ _ _ _

____Her voice jumped two full octaves: “I told you to quit calling me that!”_ _ _ _

____Ginoza laughed, long and fully and deeply. “Let’s go back, then, Akane.”_ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a Beatles song. You probably knew that. Hope you enjoyed! The movie gave me many feels, so I felt like finishing this.


End file.
